Jurtschitsch Terrassen Gruner Veltliner 2020
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
The grapes for this wine comes from different vineyards around the Kamptal Valley, from primarily loess soils. The fruit is hand-harvested, with some sorting done in the vineyard. The grapes are macerated on the skins for a short time before fermentation in stainless steel.
Grüner Veltliner is a wonderful food companion, and goes well with light starters but also with spicy heavy main dishes, fish, or cheese. Intense aroma of fruit and blossoms, this is fresh and spicy, at the same time complex and mouth-filling with a lively acidity. This is a fantastic everyday Grüner.
As early as the 1930's the Sonnhof estate was renowned for its pioneering efforts in viticulture and in winemaking – efforts that drew well-deserved praise in the following decades, especially from the 1960's on. At that time the estate of Josef Jurtschitsch was the most highly awarded winery in Langenlois.
Fun to say and delightfully easy to drink, Grüner Veltliner calls Austria its homeland. While some easily quaffable Grüners come in a one-liter—a convenient size—many high caliber single vineyard bottlings can benefit from cellar aging. Somm Secret—About 75% of the world’s Grüner Veltliner comes from Austria but the variety is gaining ground in other countries, namely Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and the United States.
Climbing north and slightly east of the Kremstal region, Kamptal has very little vineyard area bordering the Danube River (unlike Wachau and Kremstal, whose vineyards run along it). The region takes its name from the river called Kamp, which traverses it north and south. Kamptal’s densely planted vineyards represent eight percent of Austria’s total.
The area experiences wide diurnal temperature variations like the Wachau but with less rain and more frost. Its vast geologic diversity makes it suitable for various experimentations with other varieties besides Grüner Veltliner and Riesling, such as Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc (Weissburgunder), Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, St. Laurent and Zweigelt.
But the region is probably most noted for the beautiful and expansive terraced Heiligenstein, arguably one of the world’s top Riesling sites, as well as some of Austria’s most extraordinary Grüner Veltliner vineyards. Kamptal’s soils, which are mostly loess and sand with some gravel and rocks, make it suitable for Grüner Veltliner, so much so that actually half of the zone is planted to that grape.